Police probe breach of NHS smartcard security as e-records launched in London

By Tony Collins
ComputerWeekly.com
16 Nov 2009

An NHS trust at the forefront of work on the 12.7bn NHS IT scheme has called in police after a breach of smartcard security compromised the confidentiality of hundreds of electronic records.

Patients in Hull have expressed their dismay that an unauthorised NHS employee has accessed their confidential records; and the local primary care trust, NHS Hull, says it is "shocked" at the breach of security by a member of staff who has since left.

Details of the breach emerged as health officials in London were, in an unrelated event, telling journalists about the start of a roll-out of electronic records across London, as part of the National Programme for IT [NPfIT].

The roll-out is part of plans by the Department of Health to create for 50 million people in England an electronic "summary" medical record on a central database run by BT.

But doctors say that the breach of security at NHS Hull shows that an insider with a smartcard can access confidential electronic records without authorisation, if the person is determined to do so.